Drinking games

By Jessica Alway

When students binge drink on a Friday or Saturday night, not only are they are putting themselves at risk but also the people who live in the house where the party is held.

Binge drinking can have long-term physical consequences, but in some cases it can affect complete strangers. When an individual consumes too much alcohol the physical effects, such as loss of consciousness, are relatively immediate, obvious and usually require immediate medical attention regardless of location. If it happens to be at a party, the owners of the property could face possible legal repercussions, even if they never provided the intoxicated individual any alcohol.

The California state statute says that social hosts cannot be held legally accountable for any damage to property or the health of an individual as a result of consumption of alcoholic beverages provided by the host. Yet this law hinges on the fact that alcohol is only being given to people of legal drinking age.

"Serving alcohol to minors is not any different legally than going into a store and buying it for them," said Robert Peterson, a law professor at Santa Clara Law School. "Either way you are contributing to the delinquency of a minor and if you get caught there are definite consequences."

Homeowners risk facing these consequences when they must call emergency medical technicians to their home to take care of individuals that have poisoned themselves with too much alcohol.

"We will document if we see violations at a scene of a medical call," said Lt. Stewart Cusimano with the Santa Clara Police Department. "Of course our primary concern is the medical case, but we aren't going to overlook obvious violations."

It always remains a civil situation, according to Cusimano. Police officers identify underage drinkers, document accordingly and write on the report they responded initially to a medical call.

The hospital, the fire department and the police all respond to a medical call. The fire department is always first on the scene, according to Cusimano. As the initial responders they assess the scene and then radio the ambulance with the information. If serious medical attention is needed the ambulance comes. It is optional for the police to come as well, but under Santa Clara Police Department protocol units are told to respond to all medical cases around the university where alcohol is involved, according to Cusimano.

The police don't inform landlords of alcohol violations or medical calls, but the report is available to the public.

"There is nothing illegal about calling an ambulance," said Peterson. "But ambulances coming to your place all the time, a landlord might take umbrage with that."

Alcohol violations on the other hand are definite grounds for eviction according to most leases. The standard clause states the inhabitants will not use the premises for any illegal purpose and serving alcohol to minors puts leasers in a vulnerable position, said Peterson.

"I don't think students think about the consequences of their drinking, personal health wise and for other people," said Laurie Millar, a community facilitator in Dunne this year. She has already seen multiple cases of alcohol poisoning on her rounds. From her experience the extreme cases usually involve freshman that have been drinking both in the building and at parties.

"I think students binge drink to prove themselves," said Millar. "They see other people doing it too, but some people don't know how much is too much yet."

Michele Helms, a nurse practitioner and the coordinator of student EMTs on campus, agrees that binge drinking is very popular on campus.

"Our environment encourages binge drinking for two reasons," said Helms. "First, there are no clubs or bars around the area for students to visit and secondly, the our police department tends to crash parties fairly early. This pushes students to drink as much as they can as quick as they can wherever they can. They want to get that high as quickly as possible because the police will probably be there soon."

Dan Delgadillo and his house mates, who live at 561 Washington Street, have taken steps to protect themselves from the risks, such as underage drinking and alcohol poisoning, when they throw parties open to all students. They hire third party vendors to disperse the alcohol and regulate consumption. In a signed agreement, the vendors take the liability from the inhabitants of the property. They agree to check identification and only serve alcohol to those of drinking age.

"From our experience it has worked very well," said Delgadillo. "We can relax at our party without having to worry about losing our lease because a minor drinks on our property."